Method and apparatus of dynamic updating web portals

ABSTRACT

The web portal&#39;s contents management becomes complex and sometime tedious job. There are needs for an efficient and cost effective way to manage large volumes of the web contents for web portals. The posting and withdrawing operation of the present invention has provided a means for making the tasks of updating and managing web portal&#39;s contents become much easy and efficient due to the principle of the parallelism can be deployed.

PRIORITY

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/732,496, filed on Apr. 2, 2007 in the name of the sameinventor and entitled “Method and Apparatus for Information ExchangeOver a Web Based Environment”, and is also a continuation-in-part ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/374,302 entitled “Displaymulti-layers list item in web browser with supporting of concurrentmulti-user” and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/116,511 entitled“Intelligent Distributed Virtual Server”, in the name of the sameinventor.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to communications network. Morespecifically, the present invention relates to web based communicationssystem.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

With increasing popularity of using the Internet and World Wide Web(“the Web”) for the rapidly changing digital world, individuals as wellas enterprises, exchange (or swap) large volumes of information throughthe Web. The demand for larger and faster information exchange hasincreasingly grown in recent years. For example, various businessmeetings and conferences are conducted over the Web with attendeesscattered around the world. To enhance the communication between themeeting attendees, not only voice (and/or image) information isimportant, but also information exchange can be critical.

Fast, volume, and secure information exchange is important in enhancingthe efficiency of a communications network. At Internet era, the webportals become a means for personal, group, or organizationalcommunication. Therefore, an efficiency and cost effective method ofcreating and updating web portal becomes critical to each business andindividuals.

Accordingly, there is a need in the art to provide a faster, moresecure, volume information exchange over the Web.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for informationexchange over a web environment.

With the development of central controlled distributed scalable virtualmachine (CCDSVM) and the web-based computer user working (operating)environment (WCUWE), the problems mentioned in the previous section caneasily be solved by introducing a “dynamic workspace” technology of thisinvention within the frameworks of CCDSVM and WCUWE.

With dynamic workspace technology, one or more login users of CCDSVM,each using a browser of any system and from anywhere, can instantlyperform tasks. For example, each user can post or un-post messages,files, folders, or other resources information on systems of CCDSVM withgroup-based model or non-group 1-to-1 model to one or more audiences onthe network. This technology will also achieve larger scales of secureinformation exchange without size limitation and the installation ofspecial software. Specially, this technology can dramatically improvethe efficient and cost effectiveness for updating the contents of anyexisting web portals.

The implementation of this invention has provided users with aweb-browser based system that is capable of securing exchanges ofmessages, files, folders, or other resources information includingstorage and network resources on systems crossing network domainswithout size limitation.

Additional features and benefits of the present invention will becomeapparent from the detailed description, figures, and claims set forthbelow.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be understood more fully from the detaileddescription given below and from the accompanying drawings of variousembodiments of the invention, which, however, should not be taken tolimit the invention to the specific embodiments, but are for explanationand understanding only.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a layout of a CCDSVM with acentral control management system and multiple provisioned systems,client system and console system in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 2A is a block diagram illustrating a layout of a CCDSVM with whichusers from their web-browser of provisioned system can communicate witheach other in accordance with another embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram illustrating a layout of a CCSDVM with only asingle control management system to be accessed by massive clientsystems in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a software for aCCDSVM in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4A illustrates an example of a dynamic workspace in accordance withone embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4B illustrates an example of possible resources which may beassigned to a user-group common workspace in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4C illustrates an example of a user private workspace and possibleassigned system resources in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention. The mentioned managing resources can be realized viaoperation menu associated with displayed resource information. Forexample, a file-folder can be associated with an operation menucontaining an operating option of creating a file, which encoded into aweb page and to be displayed in user's web browser on his/her nativesystem. Upon the user to select and submit the task of creating a file,an editor can be invoked and displayed in user's web browser or in aseparate displayed area, so that user can input the content of the newfile and further save it via a save new file operating option totransmit the created file back to his/her default homefile-folder/directory.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of resource objects on systems of CCDSVMin accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The resourceinformation can be network resource such as the identificationinformation of one or more provisioned systems, which controlled andgrouped by the control system if said control system is not anstandalone system; wherein said identification information ofprovisioned system includes system name, IP address, ID such as systemservice group ID.

The resource information also can be the information of the hardwareresources on the provisioned system and control system such as one ormore network devices such as Ethernet or wireless cards, storage devicessuch as SCSI or RAID disk, memories, CPUs, and one or more userinterface (input/output) devices such as keyboard, mouse, monitor anddisplaying devices, and audio and video recoding or playback devices andcomponents including digital camera or video and audio encoding cardsetc. and there is no limits.

The resource also could be data resource on said system such as one ormore file systems built on one or more storage devices, one or morefile-folders and various type of data files or application files on saideach file system, or one or more record file such as user account oruser-group profiles or one or more message data, wherein said data filecan be document file such as Word or PDF or Spreadsheet or PowerPoint orplain text file, or media data of streaming video or audio fileincluding AVI, MPEG, MP3 or JPEG image file, and said application fileis binary file such as for web application.

The resources can be kept into one or more information lists and to bestored in database on the storage media of the control system. Thedatabase is organized as one or more lists of tables, wherein each ofthe lists contains a certain type of resources or mixed type ofresources. The storage media could be a system's internal storage suchas memory or disk drive, for example.

The resource information of this invention can be encoded, displayed andoperated as web folder-tree in web browser using multi-layered item list(MLIL) in the memory of control system, wherein each node of said MLILbinds with corresponding operation menu, attributes of said resource andgraphic image, wherein said attributes of said resource are resource'sname, ID, size, location or address, time stamp, ownership, and so forthwithout limit. Each node of the MLIL can have its next layer of one ormore sub-nodes representing another layer of one or more actualresources.

The resource MLIL can be encoded into web page and be displayed inuser's web browser such that said user can interactively select eachpermitted resource node of MLIL and to perform desired tasks throughsaid operation menu. The list of resources displayed as web folder-treehas been demonstrated in embodiments of present invention such asdepicted in FIGS. 7A, 7B, 8A, 8B, and 8C. The folder-tree can beorganized and displayed including one or more resource nodes, which areorganized into one or more layers and each layer is vertically aligned,right indented and displayed below the layer above it, wherein each nodeat each layer represents a corresponding resource and can have its nextlayer one or more nodes for representing the corresponding resource'snext layer one or more resources if there are any.

FIG. 6A illustrates an example of displaying a web-page with 4 sectionsin web-browser of user X in user-group-1 during an interactive onlinemeeting in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention; Eachsection of a web page can be updated and refreshed automatically and beupdated/refreshed independent of other sections by a runtime controlscript such as a Java script or others, which can be preloaded into theweb browser via an encoded web page. Of course, the entire web page alsocan be updated and refreshed manually by user or by a different controlscript.

FIG. 6B illustrates an example of displaying a web-page with 4 sectionsin web-browser of user Y in user-group-1 during interactive onlinemeeting in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.As mater of the fact, it has illustrates that each web page can bedivided into multiple screen sections and each section can be encodedwith resources information actually from one or more user's privateworkspace.

In one embodiment as illustrated in this figure, the user-group-Isection encoded with multiple files in group common workspace, whichactually posted from three private workspaces by three correspondingusers in the group. Also, only the actual owner of each file can fromown private workspace to withdraw his previously posted file. Forexample, the picture I was posted by user Y from his private workspace,therefore, only user Y from his private workspace can be permitted toun-post this previously posted picture I. Similarly, the user-group-Isection being encoded and displayed with multiple messages in groupcommon workspace, which actually posted by multiple users from each ofown multiple private workspace. Besides, each message can be un-postedby the actual owner of the message from the owner's private workspace.

FIG. 6C illustrates an example of displaying a web-page with 4 sectionsin web-browser of user X in user group-1 before interactive onlinemeeting in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6D illustrates an example of displaying a web-page with 4 sectionsin web-browser of user Y in user group-1 before interactive onlinemeeting in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6E illustrates an example of a displayed public web-page that eachmassive online user can access and view from each of their browserwithout login to CCDSVM during said user X and user Y in user-group-1online meeting in accordance with another embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 7A illustrates one-to-one, peer-to-peer post or un-post messagesand folders of user X in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention. As matter of the fact, this also has illustrated that asection of web page can be encoded with information in multiple privateworkspaces because the displayed user-X's private workspace alsoincludes information posted from another user-Y's private workspace suchas “Sales folder”, which only user-Y can withdraw it via his privateworkspace.

FIG. 7B illustrates one-to-one, peer-to-peer post or un-post messagesand information of folders of user Y in accordance with anotherembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8A is an example of a web-based graphic presentation view ofassigned resources in a user X's private workspace in accordance withone embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8B is an example of a web-based graphic presentation of assignedresource in the private workspace of user Y in accordance with anotherembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8C is an example of a web-based graphic presentation view of userY's private workspace after user X dynamically posted and shared “folder2” in user X's private space in accordance with another embodiment ofthe present invention.

The FIGS. 7A, 7B, 8A, 8B, and 8C also have illustrated that how does theweb folder-tree can be used to organize resources in workspaces forefficient operating and managing resource during communication andsharing activities. The web folder-tree can be operated in similar wayas native window based folder-tree; A user can select a node to expandand display its sub-nodes if there are any, and said user also canselect a previously expanded node to collapse and hide all its sub-nodesfrom displaying. Therefore, said user can continuously browser andexpand said sub-node of a folder-tree as long as there are next level ofresource nodes until find a targeted resource node. Since each node isbound with operation menu associated with one or more options ofdifferent tasks, the entire displayed resource folder-tree can beconveniently accessed and operated.

FIG. 9A is an example of a pop-up menu for folder in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9B is an example of a pop-up menu for file in accordance withanother embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10A is an example of a non pop-up operation menu for folder inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10B is an example of a non pop-up operation menu for folder inaccordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is an example of a center view of a list of posted files orfolders in sharable file & folder area of a common workspace of a userX, through witch the user X can smoothly manage the massive sharinginformation for participating one or more 1-to-1 communication withdifferent communication partners, or participating group modelcommunication in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 12 has illustrated a computer system and its components.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present invention are described herein in the contextof a method, system and apparatus for providing a web basedcommunications network with fast, volume, and secure informationexchange. Those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that thefollowing detailed description of the present invention is illustrativeonly and is not intended to be in any way limiting. Other embodiments ofthe present invention will readily suggest themselves to such skilledpersons having the benefit of this disclosure. Reference will now bemade in detail to implementations of the present invention asillustrated in the accompanying drawings. The same reference indicatorswill be used throughout the drawings and the following detaileddescription to refer to the same or like parts.

In the interest of clarity, not all of the routine features of theimplementations described herein are shown and described. It will, ofcourse, be appreciated that in the development of any such actualimplementation, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be madein order to achieve the developer's specific goals, such as compliancewith application and business-related constraints, and that thesespecific goals will vary from one implementation to another and from onedeveloper to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such adevelopment effort might be complex and time-consuming, but wouldnevertheless be a routine undertaking of engineering for those ofordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.

In accordance with the present invention, the components, process steps,and/or data structures described herein may be implemented using variouscombined types of operating systems, computing platforms, computerprograms including various software modules, and/or general purposemachines. In addition, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognizethat devices of a less general purpose nature, such as hardwireddevices, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specificintegrated circuits (ASICs), or the like, may also be used withoutdeparting from the scope and spirit of the inventive concepts disclosedherein. Where a method comprising a series of process steps isimplemented by a computer or a machine and those process steps can bestored as a series of instructions readable by the machine, they may bestored on a tangible medium such as a computer memory device (e.g., ROM(Read Only Memory), PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory), EEPROM(Electrically Eraseable Programmable Read Only Memory), FLASH Memory,Jump Drive, and the like), magnetic storage medium (e.g., tape, magneticdisk drive, and the like), optical storage medium (e.g., CD-ROM,DVD-ROM, paper card and paper tape, and the like) and other known typesof program memory.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the followingdetailed description of the present invention is illustrative only andis not intended to be in any way limiting. Other embodiments of thepresent invention will readily suggest themselves to such skilledpersons having the benefit of this disclosure. It will be apparent toone skilled in the art that these specific details may not be requiredto practice to present invention. In other instances, well-knowncircuits and devices are shown in block diagram form to avoid obscuringthe present invention. In the following description of the embodiments,substantially the same parts are denoted by the same reference numerals.

While particular embodiments of the present invention have been shownand described, it will now be apparent to those skilled in the arthaving the benefit of this disclosure that many more modifications thanmentioned above are possible without departing from the inventiveconcepts disclosed herein. Therefore, the appended claims are intendedto encompass within their scope all such modifications as are within thespirit and scope of this invention.

The present invention can be implemented by a web based system operatedin a network infrastructure, such as a central controlled distributedscalable virtual machine (“CCDSVM”). FIG. 1 illustrates a CCDSVM inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention. A CCDSVMincludes one or more groups of provisioned systems 3 that automaticallyforms one or more service groups/pools, a control management system 2,console systems 1, and client systems 10. Control management system(“control system”) 2 is configured to control one or more groups ofsystems (“provisioned system”) 3. Console systems (“console systems”) 2provide management while client systems 10 (“client systems”) initiateaccessing provisioned systems 3 and control system 2 via a web-browserover a network infrastructure, such as the Intranet, an Internet, and/ora LAN.

The network infrastructure (“network”) includes all necessary hardwareand software resources that facilitate various users from differentgeographic locations to communicate through the Internet, an Intranet,and/or a LAN. The hardware of the network includes network connectionmedia, wireless media, circuitry components, and communicationequipments. The network connection media includes various cables such asEthernet and/or optical fiber. The wireless media is capable ofestablishing wireless communication links through air. The circuitrycomponents include processor, data bus, memory devices, and/or circuitboard. The communication equipments, such as switches, routers,gateways, and/or adapters, are used to provide a communications network.It should be noted that there are other possible elements ofcommunication equipment that may be needed to form a communication link,but they are not necessary to understand the present invention.

The network of the CCDSVM provides the scalable bandwidth andcomputational powers for CCDSVM. In one embodiment, one or more switchesand routers can be added and removed for the network of the CCDSVM fordynamically connecting and adding removing one or more provisionedsystem units for the service pools/groups of the CCDSVM in response tothe service and bandwidth and capacity requirements in providingservices to meet the demand from more users on the client systems.

The software infrastructure includes Internet Protocol (“IP”) addressesand system name identification software such as Domain Name System(“DNS”), firewall software, IP gateway set-up software, IP broadcast,and so forth without limit. The communication protocols over the networkcould be IP-based standard or non-standard proprietary protocols such asHypertext Transfer Protocol (“HTTP/HTTPS”) over Transmission ControlProtocol/Internet Protocol (“TCP/IP”) or Simple Object Access Protocol(“SOAP”) over TCP/IP. It should be further noted that some IP basedprotocols are proprietary protocols and some are non-IP based protocols.

A web-browser is an application program that allows a user to accessinformation over the Web, such as Windows Internet Explorer (“IE”),FireFox, Netscape, and/or Mozillar. A web-browser could also be anyproprietary software, which uses web-protocols such as HTTP, WAP, SOAPfor communication with web server over the network. The web-browser canbe implemented with any or a combination of suitable programminglanguages such as C, C++, Java, or XML. In another embodiment, the webbrowser can be replaced with another networked user interfacetool/application, which can be implemented using non web basedspecialized protocols.

A web page, on the other hand, is a displayable for information resourcethat is accessible through web-browser. In present invention, the webpages are being used for display the user interface part of the WCUWEfor users from each of own web browser performing interactive tasks. Theweb pages may be hosted by a web server via a web server system and canbe transmitted (or retrieved) by a web-browser. The web-page can beimplemented with any or a combination of suitable programming languagessuch as C, C++, Java, or HTML, XML, WML and so forth without limit.

Provisioned systems 3, client systems 10, console systems 1, and controlmanagement system 2 are computational systems, which could be serversystem, such as database server, web server, email server, video server,file server, storage server such as NAS or SAN or security monitoringdevices with video and audio recording and playback devices, or desktopor laptop system, handheld wireless devices such as PDA, wireless phone,and so forth without limit. The computational systems include hardwareresource of electronic components or devices such as CPUs, storagedevices, input/output and display components and memory controller. Thestorage devices include internal memory such as read-only memory (“ROM”)and/or random access memory (“RAM”). The storage devices may furtherinclude external storage devices such as magnetic disks or tapes, whichinclude redundant array of inexpensive disk drives (“RAID”), just bunchof disk drive (“JBOD”) and memory stick. The associated storagecontroller can be Integrated Drive Electronics (“IDE”), Small ComputerSystem Interface (“SCSI”), Fiber optical controller, or a combination ofabove-mentioned devices without limitation.

The computational systems also include non-embedded or real-timeembedded OS running, which could be Linux, or Windows, Unix, orproprietary OS. It should be noted that the present invention mayinclude multiple control systems at different layers of systemconfiguration topology wherein each of the control systems is capable ofcommunicating with each other through a network. The control systems atmiddle layers play dual roles as both control system and provisionedsystem in the system configuration topology.

FIG. 1 illustrates a CCDSVM platform with multiple clients in accordancewith one embodiment of the present invention. The CCDSVM includesconsole systems 1, control management system 2, provisioned systems 3,and networks 11-12, wherein networks 11-12 are used inter-connectingwith all systems of CCDSVM and client systems 10.

Console system 1 is a computational system having a web-browser orweb-console 9 wherein web-browser is used by privileged users foraccessing the CCDSVM platform. The web browser 9, which could be on anysystem, permits a user to access information from the CCDSVM byfollowing a web URL link In one embodiment. For example, a privilegeduser enters a URL of “https://69.107.28.123/stt/sttwebos” on a commandline of web browser 9 and once the link is established, the user canobtain information hosted by the web-based computer user work/operationenvironment (“WCUWE”). Console system 1, in one embodiment, furtherincludes software modules 13, wherein modules 13 may be used tofacilitate communication between console system 1 and control managementsystem 2.

To support non web based networked user interface, the console system 1can have a specialized software modules 13 using protocols other thanmentioned web protocols. In another embodiment, if the control system 2support a non-web based network computer user work environment(“NCUWE”), a user from a program on user's native system, which can beprovided by the other software modules 13 of the console system 1, cansend a similar request to the control system 2 to indicate accessing adesired networked program of the NCUWE on the control system 2.

Control system 2, in one embodiment, is a server system, a desktop or alaptop system or even a wireless devices with respective memory andstorage capabilities. Control system 2 includes web server software 7and console supporting software 6. Console supporting software 6includes web server interface software modules 5 and control managementsoftware modules 4. The control management system 2 may also haveweb-browser 9 used as a web-console 9 of control system 2. Web serversoftware 7 sends/receives data to/from web-console 9 of console system 1or client system 10 or control system 2. Web server software 7 isconfigured to provide secure sockets layer (“SSL”) encryption toencrypting the data before transmission to enhance the security. Webserver software 7 could be commercially available software such asApache™ from open source, or IIS from Microsoft or a proprietarysoftware. Web server software modules and console support softwaremodules can be implemented by any suitable or a combination of anysuitable programming languages such as C, C++, Java, JavaScript, HTML,or XML.

Console supporting software 6 communicates with service software modules8 of provisioned systems 3. Web server interface 5 of console supportsoftware 6 is capable of providing special functions that are otherwiseperformed by web server 7. If no provisioned system 3 is coupled to theCCDSVM platform, control management system 2, in one embodiment, isreconfigured to continue monitoring systems over the network while theCCDSVM platform is also reconfigured to a single stand-alone system, asshown in FIG. 2B. Users can access and/or obtain objects or systemresources information via web-browser 9, which can be resided at anyclient system 10 or console system 1 or control management system 2.

Provisioned system 3, in one embodiment, is a computational system,wherein the system may contain suitable operating system (“OS”).Provisioned systems 3 can be automatically provisioned by control system2 through a variation of the automatic system service pool constructionprotocol, which is a proprietary combined sequence of TCP/UDP/IPprotocols as described in prior said application entitled “Method andApparatus for Web-based Storage On Demand” and to form one or moreservice pools (system groups) based on group ID. Provision process, alsoknown as pooling process, is a method allowing control system 2 tocontrol one or more network systems by reconfiguring the networksystems. For example, when a provisioned system boots up via acommunication protocol, control system 2 detects and obtains provisionedsystem's name, IP address, and system information wherein the systeminformation includes network information, service group ID, storageinformation, file system information and so forth without limit, andfurther stores these information into a provisioned system unitinformation lists in a database on the control system 2.

Each provisioned system 3 can be monitored, accessed, and/or operated bya user(s) through said web-browser 9 after the provisioning process. Thecontrol system 2 also updates status of provisioned system unit in theservice pool in response to detect the shutdown or link down of anyprovisioned system and in response to admin staff's maintenance requestsfor removing any provisioned systems from service pools.

In an alternative embodiment, provisional system 3 is controlled byusers through client systems 10 or console system 1 via control system 2with proper users' authentication. Each provisioned system 3 containsservice software modules 8, which is used to communicate with controlsystem 2, console system 1 and client system 10. For example, servicesoftware modules 8 of provisioned system 3 can communicate with controlmanagement software 4 to carry out tasks for monitoring, accessing ormanaging resources of provisioned system 3. Service software 8 cancommunicate with web-browser 9 of client system 10 or console system 1or control t system 2 to transfer data between them or deliver serviceto them, or to communicate with another provisioned system 3 to send orreceive data.

In one embodiment, the CCDSVM provides the service software modules 8 toincludes the functionalities of the console support software 6 and webserver software 7 of the control system 2 to form the WCUWE of theprovisioned system. Therefore, when a user login to the control systemfor access the CCDSVM, the user also can access the permitted WCUWE ofthe provisioned system 3 via a displayed entry point of the user'sprivate workspace in the user's web browser. Further, each provisionedsystem 3 is able to provide data and application services for one ormore client systems independent of other provisioned system 3 andwithout going through the control system 2 again.

In one embodiment, one or more spare provisioned systems 3 can beprovided, where each spare system 3 is configured with identical serviceapplications and data as one or more corresponding provisioned system 3configured in each service pool, for providing fault handling. Once thecontrol system 2 detecting a faulted provisioned system 3, it canimmediately instruct a corresponding spare provisioned system 3 toprovide the service replacement for the faulted provisioned system 3 toprovide continued service for one or more clients. In addition, usingspare system has certain advantage, for example, one spare system 3 canserve one or more provisioned systems 3.

Service software modules 8 may include special software modules havingcompatible functionalities of web-server software 7 of control system 2and to dedicate handling HTTP/HTTPS protocol or other web protocols ifthere is needs for web-based communication with client 10 or with otherprovisioned system 3 or with control system 2. In another embodiment,the service software modules can be implemented to communicate with nonweb browser based networked user interface by deploying specializednetwork protocols such as non-web based TCP/UDP/IP protocols. Softwaremodules 8 could include commercially available web server software 7 orany proprietary software. The service software modules 8 could beimplemented with any or combination of suitable programming languagessuch as C, C++, Java, or JavaScript.

Net 11 and Net 12 are network infrastructures of the CCDSVM that arecapable of providing communication links between control managementsystem 2, console system 1, client system 10, and/or provisioned systems3. Net 11 and Net 12 comprises one or more switches and/or routers forproviding scalable network, where the switches and routers can be addedor removed along with adding or removing one or more provisioned systemsin response to the services requirements. Client systems 10 may not be apart of CCDSVM, but with the permission and authorization, one or moreusers from web-browser 9 of client system 10 can login to CCDSVM andaccess the permitted resources of CCDSVM using web-browser 9 byfollowing a web URL link of CCDSVM. To support non web based networkuser interface, the client system 10 can have a specialized softwaresame as the software modules 13 of the console system 1. Whileprivileged users can obtain, manage, access, and/or operate systemresources from CCDSVM through WCUWE, regular (non-privileged) users atclient systems 10 may be permitted to access only limited systemresources of CCDSVM. The prior applications entitled “Concurrent WebBased Multi-Task Support for Control Management System,” and entitled“Display multi-layers list item in web browser with supporting ofconcurrent multi-users” together have described how to setup usersecurity profile for one or more users interactively selects andaccesses permitted resources and performs various permitted tasks viaone or more displayed permitted folder-trees/MLIL.

CCDSVM configuration, in one embodiment, includes four data flow paths.The first data path is a communication link between web browser 9 ofclient host 10 (or console host 1 or control management system 2) andweb handling software on control system 2 (such as web-server 7 andconsole support software 6). With this path of data flow, whenever auser sends a request from web-browser 9 to web-server 7 and further toconsole support software 6, console support software 6 collects requiredinformation from target systems and converts (encode) them into standardstructured information (web-format/web-page) for web communication byusing any or a combination of suitable programming language such as C,C++, Java, Javascript, HTML, XML, WML and so forth without limit. Thetargeted system could be one of provisioned systems 3 or control system2.

The information collected by the console support software 6 of controlsystem 2 could be, in one embodiment, the system status, storageinformation, network information, user authentication profile, the filesystem information, files & folders information on control system 2, orany targeted provisioned system 3. Console support software 6 thenpasses this converted structured information (web page) to web serversoftware 7 and further transmits to web-browser 9 through communicationlink Net 11 and Net 12 so that it can be displayed and viewed by aconventional web browser 9, as shown in FIG. 1.

The communication protocol used between the web-browser 9 of clientsystem 10 (or console system 1 or control system 2) and the web server 7of control system 2 could be HTTP, HTTPS (SSL encrypted HTTP protocol)or any suitable web protocols for web communication, which couldsuccessfully transmit the data on the web or could be other standard orproprietary IP-based on non-IP-based protocols. This data path may besimply referred to as the console support software 6 transferring datato/from said web-browser 9.

In one embodiment, if the control system 2 is configured with multiplenetwork interface equipments, the console support software 6 detectsfrom which network interface the requested data stream submitted by webbrowser 9 is coming from, therefore, it will provide the response webpage back to the web browser 9 via the same communication link thatincludes the identified network interface equipment.

The second data path is the data flow through communication link betweencontrol system 2 and provisioned systems 3. Requests targeted to aprovisioned system 3 are passed from the console support software 6 ofthe control system 2 to the service modules 8 of the provisioned systems3 through the communication link network 12. When the requests arereceived by a provisioned system 3, the service modules 8 of provisionedsystem 3 carry out the requested tasks, and if there is needs, theservice software 8 of provisioned system 3 then send the response backto console support software 6 of control system 2, and further letcontrol system to provide response back to the user's request. Inanother embodiment, the service software modules 8 of the provisionedsystem 3 provide response back to the user directly without goingthrough the control system again.

The implementation of the actual products of this invention on thesecond data path may use proprietary TCP/UDP/IP based protocols for thecommunication between provisioned systems 3 and control system 2.However, other standards or proprietary IP-based or any suitablenon-IP-based protocol are also possible. The communication protocolsused between console support software 6 of the control system 2 andservice modules 8 of provisioned system 3 can be any suitable IP basedor non-IP based protocols, whichever is suitable to transmit databetween them. The typical data flow through this path could be the bootmessage, system status, network information, or storage information ofprovisioned system 3, and so forth without limit as shown in FIG. 1.

The third data path is the data flow between provisioned systems 3 andclient system 10 or console system 1 via communication link 11-12.Referring back to FIG. 1, in one embodiment, the console supportsoftware 6 of the control system 2 may present a web link, which pointsto an object on a provisioned system 3, to be displayed in web-browser 9of client system 10 or console system 1 or control system 2. The objectpointed by the web link on the provisioned system 3 could be a textfile, MPEG video, digital picture, PDF document, MS Power Point, Worddocumentation, etc. without limit. It also could be a link of anotherweb service program. From web browser 9, a user can directly access theinformation on a provisioned system 3 pointed by the web link without gothrough the control system 2 again. In this case, service modules 8 ofprovisioned system 3 also include web server software modules orequivalent one to directly support web browser 9 as mentioned before.The communication protocols with the third path could be web protocolssuch as HTTP or WAP. Alternatively, the communication protocols can beother standards or proprietary IP-based or non-IP-based protocols. Tosimplify the discussion, the data transmitted on this path will bementioned as service software module 8 that send data to or receive datafrom said web-browser 9 or vice versa.

The fourth data path is data flow through communication link betweenprovisioned system 3 and another provisioned system 3. With this path,service modules 8 of one provisioned system 3 can directly transmit dataor information to service modules 8 of another provisioned system 3 viaa communication link Net 12 without going through control system 2. Theimplementation of the actual products of this invention, for example,uses a proprietary IP-based protocol for communications between the twoprovisioned systems 3.

The principle of this invention, however, does not rely on or limit toproprietary protocol. It should be noted that other standard orproprietary IP-based or any suitable non-IP-based protocol may also bepossible. The data and information transmitted through the fourth datapath can be various types of data. For example, a user on web-browser 9may open a file folder on a provisioned system 3. Further, the user canalso instruct to select and transfer any file or file-folder from acurrent target provisioned system 3 to another provisioned system 3 byan interactive click mechanism. The data file or file-folder will thenbe transferred directly between the two provisioned systems 3 withoutgoing through control system 2.

FIG. 2A illustrates a variation of CCDSVM platform for web browser-basedcommunication in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention. CCDSVM platform illustrated in FIG. 2A is similar to theplatform illustrated in FIG. 1 except every provisioned systems 3includes a web-browser 9. Also, the client system 10 can have samesoftware modules 13 as console system 1 has. Thus, with properauthentication process, each user of provisioned systems 3 may access,manage their own provisioned system 3 from web-browser 9 either on theirown local provisioned system 3 or on any client system anywhere on thenetwork. It should be noted that when a user is registered with aprovisioned system 3, the user is authorized to access provisionedsystem 3 locally but not with CCDSVM. On the other hand, when a user isregistered with CCDSVM, the user is not only can access its own localprovisioned system 3 but also can be authorized to access multipleprovisioned systems 3 and control system 2 of CCSDVM.

FIG. 2B illustrates another example of a variation of CCDSVM, in whichthere is no provisioned systems 3 in CCDSVM. Control system 2 can run onits own and CCDSVM has degenerated into a single stand-alone system(FIG. 2B). The users through web-browser 9 on any client system 3 (or onconsole system 1, or on stand-alone control system 2) are allowed toaccess and manage the stand-alone control system 2 via the WCUWE of thestandalone control system 2.

Unless specifically specified, the console support software modules 6 ofcontrol system 2, the provisioned systems 3, the service softwaremodules 8 of the provisioned system 3, and the web-browser 9 of thecontrol system 2, client system 10, and console system 1 are referred tothe CCDSVM platform illustrated in FIG. 1.

A web-based computer user work/operation environment (“WCUWE”) of CCDSVMis provided by a software infrastructure, shown in FIG. 3. The WCUWEprovides each permitted user to log into CCDSVM and further provide eachlogin user a private web-browser based operating environment, which is aprivate workspace including one or more assigned and permitted resourceson the control system 2 or provisioned systems 3 on the network.

In one embodiment, the user private workspace can be initially assignedand displayed in web browser with limited resources such as an entrypoint of the user's top level home directory for managing one or morenext levels of file-folders and their files, an entry point for updateuser's password or managing one or more user's authentication, an entrypoint for accessing networking, and entry point for monitoring andmanaging hardware devices including storage devices, an entry point forjoining 1-to-1 personal communication and an entry point for joininggroup collaboration including accessing on-the-fly streaming videoprovided from other user's digital camera or archived streaming videosfor the meeting, and so forth without limits. The user private workspacecan be encoded into web page and displayed into user's web browser uponuser's login to the control system for accessing the CCDSVM with anysuitable or a combination of suitable programming languages.

In another embodiment, the owner (assigned user) can dynamicallymanaging resources in the private workspace such as create a new fileunder a file-folder by using editing or other proper application tools,delete one or more files or file folders, copy or move files orfile-folders from a source file-folder either on the control system 2 oron any provisioned system 3 in CCDSVM into the user's permittedfile-folders/directories of the CCDSVM, or upload files from user'snative system's local drives into any user's permittedfile-folder/directory, or transmit files or file-folders from user'snative system's local drives into the user's default homefile-folder/directory structure via a specialized file and file-foldertransfer mechanism.

In one more embodiment, the user's private workspace in the CCDSVMdisplayed in web browser also can be connected to the user's localfile-folder/storage drives on the user's native system via thecommunication between the console support software modules 6 and theservice software modules 8 on the user's native system as depicted inFIG. 2 b. Therefore, the file-folders on storage drivers of a user'snative system can be displayed and be accessed via the user's privateworkspace of the CCDSVM.

WCUWE further provides each user from a single web-browser 9 tointeractively perform various permitted tasks and operations overvarious system resources (FIG. 5), wherein the tasks can be performedconcurrently from a single web-browser 9. The tasks include userauthentication management such as allowing privileged users to createusers, groups, assign users to each group, to assign initial resourcesto each user or group, and to save the information of created users andgroups into a database stored on a storage media of the control system.

The information of users or groups include user names, user IDs,assigned security permissions, passwords, access points, group names,group IDs, maximum members in a group, and so forth. The assignedsecurity permissions include the user's role and credential information,which further includes from where the user can access CCDSVM, whatservice group/pool the user can access, what system and what specificresources on a system the user can access, and what task the user canperform. The user's security permission is encoded into a security datastructure, where one or more fields of the security data structurecontaining one or more bits with bit-status of on or off to representthe status of one or more specific credential or permission for theuser.

The privileged user can dynamically grant or revoke other user'ssecurity permission and credential via interrogating each user'ssecurity profile by inspecting, checking, and changing the status ofeach security permission field, or assign and deny each specific user toaccess the resources of the CCDSVM via set access control option fromoperation menu associated with any resource.

In addition, the console support software 6 of the control system 2keeps tracking records for each user's every login session including thetime of login and the time of log out, at what time performed what taskor accessed what data or applications. In one embodiment, the consolesupport software modules 6 receives and parses each user's accessingrequest, and writes information of each user's request into a accessrecord in the per user secure access file, which can be linked to eachuser's security profile for real-time fast interrogation. In oneembodiment, the per user secure access record file can be backup bycopying it to another file with a special name tag, and it can furtherbe emptied on a periodic bases for keeping the up to date user's accessrecords.

The tasks also include personal or group communication, system andnetwork management, accessing and managing data, service, and hardwareresources including network and storage device, file system,file-folders, files, messages, user security, and so forth withoutlimits. Many of tasks has been described in said prior applications of“Concurrent Web Based Multi-Task Support for Control Management System,”and “Display multi-layers item list in web browser with supporting ofconcurrent multi-users”.

After receiving each task information transmitted from the web browser9, the console support software 6 of control system 2 parses and storeseach task information into an available entry in an user space tasklist. After completing said task to be executed on targeted system, thecorresponding entry stored with said task on the user space task list iscleared up. In addition, the console support software 6 of controlsystem 2 immediately provides a response web page to each web browser inresponse to each submitted task independent of the completion of thetask execution.

In one embodiment, said response updates the original web page in saidweb browser to be encoded with the status of the task including the taskresult if the task is successfully completed or include the taskexecution status if the task is failed or in progress or include alocation that said task result will be deposited. Additionally, theWCUWE deploys a lock protecting mechanism for said user space task listand all resources related to each task's execution in the event thatmultiple tasks may concurrently access and change the state of eachmentioned resource.

The WCUWE of the CCDSVM includes software modules of present invention.For example, the software includes console support modules 6 of controlsystem 2, which further includes web interface/client interface modules5 for receiving requests from end users' web browser either on thecontrol system or remote system, and includes distribution controlmanagement software modules 4 for control, monitor, and manage theprovisioned system units 3. The distributing control management modulesalso controls user authentication, fault detecting and recovering,contents distributing, and tasks distributing and executing.

The software also includes the service software modules 8 of provisionedsystem 3, other service software 13 of console system 1, which can beused for send or receive data to/from the control system 2 andprovisioned system 3 using non web-based protocols without web browser'sinvolvement. The current implementation of WCUWE is based on aproprietary design of this invention. However, the nature and spirit ofthis invention does not limit to proprietary designed software. TheWCUWE of CCDSVM also includes other proprietary software modules orconventional software such as web-server 7 of control system 2,web-browser 9 of the control system 2, the client system 10, and consolesystem 1.

The WCUWE of the CCDSVM can be implemented with any suitable or acombination of various suitable programming languages such C, C++, Java,JavaScripts, HTML, XML, and so on. To simplify the discussion, the WCUWEwill be used to represent software modules in CCDSVM described above.

Users of CCDSVM may be created by CCDSVM though a given process or anyusers on the Internet, Intranet, LAN without registering with CCDSVM.The WCUWE of CCDSVM provides user to access various resources andperform various tasks through a preferred model of clicking on graphicor text represented resource objects on browser.

WCUWE is designed to be operated on a CCDSVM platform, and specially isdesigned to provide dynamic workspace (FIG. 4A) to each user associatedwith various CCDSVM as depictured in FIG. 1, FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B. WCUWEfurther facilitates each user to performs tasks for instantly posting aresource information to or un-posting/withdrawing user's previouslyposted resources information for web page's contents in a group model orin 1-to-1 model for users of CCDSVM in a same group or without groupmembership, or for massive public online users over the network, whereinsaid public users from each of own web browser do not have accounts withthe CCDSVM and can access the public resources provided by the CCDSVMvia public web pages.

The dynamic workspace of WCUWE is a centrally controlled collection ofeach group's workspace and/or user's private workspace. Console supportsoftware 6 of control system 2 of CCDSVM will assign each user a privateworkspace and each group a common workspace when each user or groupaccount is created by a privileged user after the WCUWE of the CCDSVMenters into an operational mode, wherein a first privileged user iscreated during installing said software of CCDSVM. When a user or agroup account is created, each user is assigned to a specific usersecurity credential and permission and permitted resources based on eachuser's role. For example, some users are privileged user who can performsystem administration tasks and others are general users who can bepermitted to access certain types of applications and resources of theCCDSVM.

A workspace is an organized information structure, which can be saved onstorage media including memory or disk drives or both of memory and diskdrives by console support software 6. A workspace is created during aprivileged user performing the tasks of creating user or group. Theworkspace will be initiated and assigned with limited resources ofCCDSVM such as shown in FIG. 5. Various resources on either provisionedsystem 3 and/or on the control system 2 include respective memory,system-groups, systems in system-group, file system, file-folder, files,storage media, network media and so on without limits. The commonworkspace 15, shown in FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B, of each group may beinitially assigned with resources information (FIG. 5) including usersin this group, message area, file systems, file-folders and files on aspecific provisioned system 3 or on control system 2, and so on. Theresources information of the common workspace may also be dynamicallyassigned or allocated by permitted user after creating group account.For example, during an online interactive meeting, a user posts a fileinformation to the common workspace, so that a new entry of a file nodeis added to a file and a folder tree area of common workspace.

In addition, each group may be assigned to one or multiple users,wherein each user can also be assigned with a private workspace 16 ofFIG. 4A and FIG. 4C during user account creation time. Also, one or moreusers also can be dynamically removed from a specific group depends onthe needs. The private workspace may also be initially assigned byresources information of the CCDSVM during user account creation time.Thereafter, the private workspace is dynamically assigned with theresources of CCDSVM after user login CCDSVM.

After creating user and group accounts information, the privileged usercan dynamically grant or revoke the permission for a general user toaccess one or more mentioned resource from his/her private workspace. Inone embodiment, the privileged user can select a node containing a listof storage device on a hardware resource folder-tree of the CCDSVM, andfurther to select posting option from operation menu and input atargeted user information for binding the list of storage device on asystem of the CCDSVM to a user's account or select a withdrawing optionto remove the list of storage devices from user account profile.Therefore, during the operation, at one second, the targeted user maysee said list from user's web-browser, and at another second, a generaluser will no longer see the list, which was in the user's displayedprivate workspace in web browser. Also, if an authorized user can accessa list of storage devices on a provisioned system and further can takeone of devices offline so that the device list on the provisioned systemwill have one less devices to be displayed in the user's web browser.

In another example, at one second, a privileged user grants a generaluser to access a file J in folder N on system M of CCDSVM by selectingthe file J and selecting an set access control option from the weboperation menu to submit task of set access control for said user, andat another second, the privileged user with similar steps to resetsprevious permission, thereby, the general user can view and access thefile J in folder N on system M of CCDSVM at one time, and a secondlater, the general user will not be able to view and access it. Theactual implementation of console support software 6 of control system 2has achieved this capability.

The total number of users and user groups can be created is dependent onthe capacity of the control system such as how larger the memory andstorage capacity are on the control system. For example, if a userprivate workspace requires 1 Gig-bytes in storage space and 2 Meg-bytesin memory space, a system with 1-GB memory and 500 GB storage roughlycan support 500 users. Similarly, the number of the concurrent usersaccess CCDSVM over the network with a certain data rate also is bound bythe network bandwidth that CCDSVM infrastructure can provided.

When a user account is deleted, the private workspace and user'membership with a group are automatically removed and updated. On theother hand, when a user group is deleted the group common workspace isdeleted, along with removing the group membership encoded in eachassociated user's security profile without effecting the rest of user'sprivate workspace. In another embodiment, when a different type of usergroup is deleted, all accounts of the associated users and their each ofthe private workspace in the group are deleted together with thedeleting of the group account.

In addition, one or more types of resources in the workspace can beorganized as one or more list of tables and can be stored in storagemedia of the control system as database. The integrity of security ofeach group is protected by limiting different resources to differentgroup. As such, each group is authorized to have a limited view overassigned system resources on provisioned systems 3 as well as controlsystem 2. The same security integrity at user level can be achieved byassigning different system resources of provisioned systems 3 and/orcontrol system 2 to different individual user based on exclusivelyassigned security permission and credentials. Therefore, each user isauthorized to access and view the assigned resources.

FIG. 4B has shown an example of assigned resources information of agroup common workspace 15 including users area 17, message area 18, andfolders and files area 19, and others 20 in common workspace 15 of agroup. All resource information in the group common workspace can beshared by all users in a same user-group. All resources in each group'scommon workspace can be selectively displayed in web-browser of eachlogin user, who belongs to same user group after said resourcesinformation in said group being converted to presentable web-format(web-page) by the console support software 6 of control system 2 ofCCDSVM.

FIG. 4C has shown an example of resources in private workspace (16) of auser, which has assigned private message area 21, private file, folderarea 22, and private network or storage or other information area 23.The assigned resources only can be exclusively viewed and accessed bythe designated user unless he/she agrees to share with peer usercrossing group boundary or with peer user in same group. The directoryis a data structure which can hold one more files and file-folders atlogical file system level and be stored on physical storage media.

FIG. 8A has shown an example of displaying an actually implementedportion of web-page encoded with assigned resources informationfolder-tree in private workspace of user X, which includes three layers.The top layer includes a system-group-A 33 on said network, whichincludes its next layer of multiple provisioned systems 3. One ofprovisioned system 3 (system-2) includes its next layer of two privatefile-folders 32 and 34 of user X, and each file-folder contains its nextlayer of files displayed in the private workspace of user X.

FIG. 8B has shown another example of displaying an actually implementedportion of web-page encoded with assigned resources information inprivate workspace of user Y, which includes control system 2, privatefolder and files 35 of user Y in a private workspace of user Y.

The private workspace of user X and user Y may also include privatemessage area 21 and other resources, which are not displayed in FIG. 8A& FIG. 8B because WCUWE is designed to dynamically display part ofuser's private workspace in response to each user's needs.

It is notable that said user X and user Y, may be in same user-groupsuch as said group-1, however, each of them has displayed a significantdifferent private workspace on the control system 2 due to they havebeen assigned with very different resources of the CCDSVM depending oneach user's role and security permission, which setup by privileged userof CCDSVM through web-based user interface provided by said consolesupport software 6. This is the beauty of the invention of WCUWE forCCDSVM.

The FIG. 6C and FIG. 6D are examples of web-page view in saidweb-browser 9 of user X and user Y in user-group-1 before an interactiveonline meeting. As shown in FIG. 6C and FIG. 6D, user X or user Y orother users (who's web-page/browser did not depicted) in sameuser-group-1 have entered a group online meeting after their login toCCDSVM from each browser on each of own native system over said network.Both users X and Y get an identical web-page provided by said consolesupport software 6 of control system 2 except with different contents indisplayed private workspace section of web-page due to each user hasassigned with different resources. The web-page screen layout providedby said console support software 6 contains four sections:

-   -   1) a private user message input area (section-1),    -   2) a message displaying section for common message area 18 of        FIG. 4B for all users in user-group-1 (section-2),    -   3) a file or folder display section for group common file and        folder area 19 of FIG. 4B for all users in same user-group-1        (section-3), and    -   4) a file and folder tree displaying and management section        (section-4) for user folder and file tree in private file and        folder area 22 of FIG. 4C of a user's private workspace.

Initially, said section-1, section-2, and section-3 are all empty due tono one has post any file information or message yet. The console supportsoftware 6 gets each login user's portion of assigned folders and filesfor online meeting from stored private file and file-folder area 22 ofFIG. 4C in private workspace of each user on said storage media, andfurther convert/encode said file or folder information into saidsection-4 of presentable web-format (web-page) to be displayable inweb-browser 9 of each user. The choice of total four sections ofweb-page layout and the order of each section on the browser screen isirrelevant to this invention since other choices of design are alsopossible, and further, this invention does not have limitation on whatweb-screen layout shall be. The information of file or folder attributesincludes the system name where the file or folder resided, the named andpath of the file or folder, the owner of file or folder, the timestamps, the size of the file and so on without limitation.

During the interactive online meeting, said console support software 6provides each user to post or un-post files or folders information tosaid section-3 of displayed group's common documents and contentsmanagement section with several steps. First, for example, providingsaid user X to click on a targeted file “Doc 1” 24 or folder one a timein section-4 of displayed said file and folder management area of saiduser private workspace. Second, select the operation of either post orun-post from an operation menu (see FIG. 9A, FIG. 9B, FIG. 10A and FIG.10B). Finally click on the selected operation to submit the task ofeither post or un-post on selected file or folder.

Each user with permission may perform un-post operation if such user hasat least a previously posted file or folder information, which hasalready displayed in section-3 of common document and content managementsection of said web-browser 9 of all login users in said sameuser-group, see FIG. 6A or FIG. 6B for example.

If a file is selected, said file operation menu is used and if a folderis selected, the folder operation menu is used respectively. It is alsopossible to only provide one menu for both file and folder operation bysaid console support software 6. The operation menu either can be pop-upmenu for folder as shown in FIG. 9A or pop-up menu for file as shown inFIG. 9B, or non-pop-up menu for folder as shown in FIG. 10A ornon-pop-up menu for file as shown in FIG. 10B, or drop-down menu or justone or more submit buttons. Each operation menu contains one or moreoperating options for user to select and submit corresponding task. Thechoice of operation menu is irrelevant to this invention although theactual implementation of this part of invention has used pop-up menu,and as matter of the facts that there is no limitation on how theoperation menu is to be designed in this invention.

In the example of FIG. 6A, user X can post a file named “Doc 1” 24 tosaid section-3 of common document and contents display section of saidweb-browser 9, In the example of FIG. 6B, user Y also can post a filenamed “picture 1” 25 to common document and contents display section ofsaid web-browser 9. In addition, another not depicted user Z posted afile of “project code”. The files or file-folders could be one on saidcontrol system 2 or on provisioned any provisioned system 3 of CCDSVM.

In addition, during the interactive online meeting, the console supportsoftware 6 of control system 2 also provides each user to post messageto one or more users in same group from said section-1 of private usermessage input section after typing a message and click on the “send”button. In the example of FIG. 6A, user X posted a message of “Msg1 ofuser X” 26. In the example of FIG. 6B, user Y also posted a message of“Msg2 of user Y” 27. In addition, another non depicted user posted amessage of “Msg3 of user Z”. As a result, all of three messages weredisplayed in the same said section-3 of each user's browser.

In a specific situation, the console support software 6 also providespermitted user to un-post the previously posted message. Just forexample, in FIG. 6A, said console support software 6 provides permitteduser X to select a previously posted “Msg2 of user Y” 27 from saidsection-2 of common message display section of said web-browser 9 ofuser X, and select un-post operation from said operation menu and submitthe selected un-post task.

The detailed information of how the post or un-post task to beimplemented will be discussed in a few paragraphs later. In addition,with this invention, the action of the “post” information such asposting information of files or folders or messages or other resourcesis equivalent to the action of “share” information. The action of“un-post” information is equivalent to the action of “un-share”previously posted or shared information, in other words, “remove”previously posted or shared information.

After user transmitting information data of the post or un-post taskfrom web-browser 9 of console system 1 or client system 10 or controlsystem 2 to control system 2, the console support software 6 of controlsystem 2 obtains and parses the data to determine: who is the originaluser initiating the task; what type of task; what type of associatedresources for task to work on; who is the targeted user; and what is thetime stamp, and may also include other information without limitation.The console support software 6 further determines that if the task is topost a file or folder from said original user, the console supportsoftware 6 picks up the corresponding file or folder information fromfile and folder area 22 of FIG. 4C of private workspace of the originaluser and deposits such information to the file and folder area 19 ofFIG. 4B of common workspace of said group in this case.

If the task is to un-post/withdrawing a previously posted file orfolder, which posted from a private workspace of a specific user, insaid common workspace of said group, the console support software 6search for the corresponding information of file or folder in the filefolder area of said common workspace of said group and further removethe entry of matched information from said common workspace of saidgroup after it is found.

If the task is to post a message to users in said group, the parsedmessage will be stored in private message area 21 of FIG. 4C of originaluser's private workspace 16 of FIGS. 4A and 4C and parsed message alsois copied to message area 18 of FIG. 4B of common workspace 15 of FIGS.4A and 4B of said user-group by said console support software 6.

If a task is to un-post (delete/remove) a previously posted message, theconsole support software 6 searches for a matching message in saidcommon message area 18 of FIG. 4B of said common workspace of said groupand remove such message entry if it is found based on message andoriginal user identification and other associated information such astime stamp, security permission and so on without limitation.

It shall be noticed that the task of un-posting a file or folder of thisinvention does not actually delete the original file and folder fromoriginal user's private workspace. In addition, a lock protectionmechanism is deployed whenever a message or information of a file orfolder is written, stored, or deposited to either said private space orsaid common workspace, or to said disk drives or other storage media.Throughout the rest of discuss, the lock protection is assume to be adefault action without further mentioning whenever a write/store/depositaction take place. As matter the fact, each task of posting file,folder, and message as well as task of un-posting the previously postedfile or folder, or message performed by multiple users in multiplegroups with this invention can be executed by the console supportsoftware 6 instantly with memory speed.

FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B illustrate that after console support software 6 ofcontrol system 2 successfully executing the tasks for each user in eachgroup, any user in a said user-group can get a fresh view of saidsection-2 of the common messages display area of user-group-1, and afresh view of said section-3 of the common documents & contents displayarea of user-group-1 from each user's said web-browser 9 on clientsystem 10 of FIG. 1 or on control system 2 of FIG. 1 or on consolesystem 1 of FIG. 1.

User can manually click on a refresh-button, which does not show on FIG.6A and FIG. 6B, to refresh entire web page screen includingcorresponding part of screen of either said section-2 or section-3. Alsothe corresponding part of browser screen of said section-2 or section-3can be automatically refreshed. As mater of the fact, optionally, theconsole support software 6 can provide a run-time script to said webbrowser via a web-page, which is loaded into web browser after each userlogin to CCDSVM and start group online meeting.

The run-time script will automatically and periodically perform tasks ofrefreshing said section-2 and section-3 of web page screen. As mater ofthe fact, the script can control which section to refresh or refresh allsections in a web page. The frequency of the periodic refreshing can beadjusted by said console support software 6 of CCDSVM depends on theneeds of the meeting, which typically can range from 1 to 3 seconds andthere is no limitation on this aspect. Also, with the preferred example,said run-time script provided by WCUWE is a JavaScript, however, othertype of programming scripts or methods are also possible and there is nolimitation on what kind of run-time program shall be used in thisinvention. In addition, the console support software 6 provides eachuser the choices of either automatic or manual refreshing their saidweb-browser 9.

Upon refreshing said section-2 or section-3 of said web-browser 9 screenof each user, a request of updating such screen will be generated andsent from said web-browser 9, to control system 2. The console supportsoftware 6 obtains and parses each request to determine what user-group,and which part of said common workspace of said group need to beupdated.

Based on information of each parsed request, the console supportsoftware 6 of control system 2 retrieves the updated resourcesinformation from said common workspace 15 of FIGS. 4A and 4B of saiduser-group, which includes recent posted files, folders, or messagesfrom each user in said group, and also includes the updated list offiles and file-folders or messages after un-post one or more files orfolders, or messages by users in same group. Finally, console supportsoftware 6 of control system 2 converts/encodes retrieved information ofresources and objects into presentable web-format (web-page).

If the request is to update the group messages, the convertedinformation is sent to the section-2 of group common message displayarea in corresponding user's said web-page/web browser 9. If the requestis to update the group common files and folders display area, theconverted information is sent to the section-3 of said web-browser 9.Therefore, after refreshing said sections on said web-browser 9, eachuser can have an identical view of all posted files and folders fromsection-3 of group common document display area on said browser 9, andcan have an identical view of all messages from section-2 of groupcommon message display area on said web-browser 9, which posted by allother users in a same group. Meanwhile said console support software 6still allow each user kept most of resources information in their ownprivate workspace un-exposed to other users in same group during theonline interactive meeting.

For example, User X at his/her said web-browser 9 can see “picture 1” 25of FIG. 6A posted by user Y in group common file and folder display areabut not other information in user Y's private workspace area, and plusthe “Doc 1” posted by user X himself. Also, user Y at his/her saidweb-browser 9 can see “Doc 1” 24 of FIG. 6B posted by user X in groupcommon file and folder display area but not other information in userX's private file and folder display area, and plus the “picture 1”posted by user Y himself.

A difference between a conventional Internet group communication modeland the group based communication model described in the presentinvention is that console support software 6 of control system 2provides each user to control post or un-post said resources informationfrom user's own private workspace while the conventional Internetcommunication model are not capable of performing posting/un-postingtask. Also, for example, un-posting a previous posted a file or folderinformation with WCUWE of CCDSVM does not delete the file or file-folderinformation nor does delete the corresponding physical file orfile-folder in user's private workspace while the delete operation withsaid existing Internet group communication model will completely deletea uploaded file in a group. The dynamic workspace of this inventionrepresents a true beauty of the combined security protection ofinformation and flexibility and efficiency of online meeting provided byWCUWE of CCDSVM to each users and groups in online meeting.

In addition, with a preferred example, since posted information of eachfiles are encoded by said console support software 6 with a web link anddisplayed in said section-3 of web-browser 9, therefore, each user in auser-group can click on said link to download the files, which providedin the private file and folder area of the private workspace of theirpeer users in group, from a system where the file is located. Forexample, user X can download said “picture 1”, which may reside oneither control system 2 or any provisioned system 3 from user Y and userY can download said “Doc 1”, which also may reside on either controlsystem 2 or provisioned system 3 from user X at same time. This achievesa true peer-to-peer exchanging files on permitted system from permittedusers in said user-group. In addition, there is no size limitation onthe file size for file to be downloaded, which is a gifted benefit fromInternet technology. Again, the web link discussed in present inventionjust represents a type of reference point to an object for user toaccess, which can be accessed in a cross network environment. Therefore,the mentioned web link itself shall not be limited to the concept of theweb only environment and it also can be referred to a way to referencean object in a non web-based networked environment.

Besides the exampled and understandable method of download, othermethods of retrieve peer users' digital documents or contents are alsopossible by deploying a more efficient proprietary file transfermechanism to reach the results of said exchanging file. It shall benoted that said method of download is only applicable to said files anddoes not apply to folder and other said resource information. To get atargeted peer user's entire folder and the underneath files and subfolders, a special files and folder transfer method is provided.Transferring files and file-folders across systems has been discussed insaid prior application of “Display multi-layers list item in web browserwith supporting of concurrent multi-users” via copy/paste mechanism.

As shown in FIGS. 9A & 9B, and FIGS. 10A & 10B, console support software6 of control system 2 also provides each user to perform many othertasks during online meeting through said operation menu such as upload,rename, delete, copy/paste and so on without limitation. The uploadoperation allows each user to dynamically upload files one a timethrough web-browser 9 from local storage of client system 10 or consolesystem 1 to any permitted file-folder in said user's private workspaceon control system 2 or on provisioned system during meeting, and furtherto be posted to said common space of user-group each user belong to.

The user interactive click driven copy/past operation allows files andfolders from permitted folders of permitted provisioned system 3 to bedynamically physically copied to each users' private workspace oncontrol system 2, and the information of said files and folders couldfurther to be displayed in said web-page/browser of each user and to beposted to common workspace of group, which each user belong to inaddition to direct posting these file or folders without physicalcopying over. As matter of the fact, operations provided by consolesupport software 6 of control system 2 have added efficiency to postingor un-posting files and folders for each user depending on the realneeds.

Additionally, said console support software 6 provides each user of eachgroup capability of saving the posted messages of common message area 18of said common workspace of said each group into a file in common file &folder area of said common workspace of each group. Further, the savedfile can be viewed, downloaded by each user in each group with samemethod of posting. Besides whenever there is needs, said console supportsoftware modules 6 provide users to reset message area to be empty byremoving all message entries in message area of said user-group's commonworkspace.

The important fact is that the designed WCUWE of CCDSVM has providedconcurrent users each from a single web browser anywhere on the networkto securely perform permitted various tasks, which could be runconcurrent within a single web-browser. Because of console supportsoftware 6 of control system 2 let each users have exclusive view forresource objects in their private workspace 16 and in said commonworkspace 15 of a group each user belong to, and let each user to manageresource objects in their own private space, the multiple users inmultiple groups model communication or in 1-to-1 communication canconcurrently post or un-post files, folders, messages, or other resourceobjects without interfere each pair of user in 1-to-1 communication orusers between each user-groups. Thus, the workspaces of each user andeach group are well protected.

Hence, the console support software 6 of control system 2 providesprivileged users to perform tasks of creating multiple users anduser-groups on control system, and each group can be assigned withvariable size of users for online interactive meeting. The total numberof users and the total number of groups, and maximum number of users pergroups of WCUWE of CCDSVM can support is an implementation issue anddepends on the capacity of the control system 2. The WCUWE of CCDSVM andCCDSVM has been designed with unlimited scalability for both users andprovisioned systems 3. On the other hand, the spirit of this inventiondoes not limit to with the boundary issues of WCUWE and CCDSVM.

FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B illustrate that each user-X and user-Y has adifferent private workspace than others, and each has assigned withdifferent system resources. Regardless each user is a member of group orwithout any group membership, the console support software 6 of controlsystem 2 also can provide user X and user Y to peer-to-peer instantlypost files or folders one a time to each other, or instantly un-post theprevious posted files and folders through similar steps as posting orun-posting materials in group online meeting model:

-   -   1) Let each user can perform clicking on source of file or        folder for post or un-post;    -   2) Let user select post operation task if user want to post any        file or folder through operation menu; or let user select        un-post operation task from operation menu if said user like to        un-post a previously posted file or folder;    -   3) upon submitting operation task, let each user provide input        to prompt of “who is a targeted user?” provided by said console        support software 9, and further submit the selected task;    -   4) the console support software 6 obtains and parses task        information of original user, source of file or folder, type of        operation, and other information;    -   5) If said type of operation is post file or folder, said        console support software 6 deposits the information of said        source file or folder to said private file and folder area of        said private workspace of targeted user. If said operation type        is un-post a file or folder, said console support software 6        search a corresponding file or folder information from said        private file and folder area of said private workspace of said        targeted user to match the source file or folder, if found a        match, the corresponding entry of the file or folder is removed        from said private file and folder area of said private workspace        of targeted user; and    -   6) Upon each user refreshing the web-page in web-browser 9, the        console support software retrieves and convert the updated        information in said private file and folder area of private        workspace of targeted user into presentable web-format        (web-page) and transmit said web-page to web-browser 9 of each        user for displaying and viewing.

For example, as shown in FIG. 8A, user X can follow said steps 1) to 3)described above to post his “folder 2” 32 in displayed files and foldersarea of private working space of user X's web-browser 9 to user Y. Asshown in FIG. 8B, upon user Y refreshing his/her said web-browser 9 on asystem by walking on any system node or folder node in displayedresource tree, user Y will see said “folder 2” 32 in his/her displayedprivate file and folder tree of private workspace of user Y shown inFIG. 8C. As matter of the fact, when walking system node and file &folder tree nodes on said web-browser 9, a refreshing web-page screenrequest is generated and to be handled as described previously or insteps described above. As a results of participating 1-to-1 modecommunication with multiple users, a user, such user X, can view andaccess multiple folders or files posted by one or more users from eachof own private workspace. On the other hand, the user X has nopermission to delete any resources posted by other users.

In addition to post messages in group-based communication involvingparties with two or more users, WCUWE of CCDSVM also provide each userto post message to each other user with non-group based 1-to-1 messagemodel. FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B have shown an example of user X and user Y,who may not be in same user-group, however, the console support software6 of control system 2 provides each user to share and exchange messageswith each other from a three-section web-page in said browser 9.

The section-3 of web-page in said browser 9 let user to work with samesaid steps of non-group based 1-to-1 posting files and folders orun-posting previously posted files or folders as described previously.The section-3 included in FIGS. 7A and 7B just for a demonstration ofhow flexible of this invention is to display information under privateworkspace of each user. Further, the number of sections in the screenlayout and the order of each section in web-page display really is not alimitation to this invention.

The section-1 is user message input area together with an additionalinput field of “To who” due to unlike in group online meeting, theconsole support software 9 have no knowledge of who is the targeted userin this case. User can posting a message with similar said steps asprevious discussed previously of this invention. Nevertheless, unlikewith group meeting messaging model, after obtaining and parsinginformation of the messages from each user, the console support software6 of control system 2 will deposit the message to both targeted peeruser and the original sending user's message areas of private workspace.Further, with same said steps of displaying messages in each user'sbrowser, each user can view both own message and messages from peer userin section-2 of browser.

For example, as shown in FIG. 7A, user X input a message of “msg4 ofuser X” 30 and type “user Y” in input field of “To who”, and then submitthe message by clicking on “Send” button. Similar as shown in FIG. 7B,user Y input a message of “Msg3 of user Y” 31, and type “user X” ininput field of “To who”, and then submit the message. Upon therefreshing web-page at web-browser 9 of each user, the user X will seethe message 30 he/she sent and the message 31 from user Y. Also the userY will see both messages 30 and 31 at same time.

Again, the design choice of three section of web-page display and theorder of each section is just a preferred example of implementation fornon-group based peer user communication. This invention does not limitedby web-screen display layout, for example, a screen display only withsaid section-1 and section-2 are also possible and so on withoutlimitation, and each section can display one or more same or differentresources in one or more user private workspaces or group commonworkspaces.

The WCUWE of CCDSVM has provided a security hierarchy for members of anyteam to work together cross multiple locations. With said securityhierarchy and said steps of posting or un-posting file and folder, theconsole support software 6 of control system 2 can specially let onlyteam leader with capability of posting folder or file to be viewed,shared, and accessed by all team members or by an individual member innon-group meeting based environment. In addition, console supportsoftware also let each team member to post or un-post his/her file orfolders to only a specific peer user one a time in non-group-meetingbased environment. Again the files or folders could be on said controlsystem 2 or on any provisioned said provisioned system 3.

It is relatively straightforward for WCUWE of CCDSVM, more specificallythe console support software 6, to support massive online users, who donot have account with CCDSVM and can not login CCDSVM yet can view thedynamically posted files, folders, or messages by users with useraccount of CCDSVM.

In a preferred example, such as shown in FIG. 6E, console supportsoftware 6 of control system 2 provides a public web-page to massiveonline users, who do not have to login CCDSVM. The public web-page, inone embodiment, could be layout with two major sections with section-1to display messages in sharable message area in a designateduser-group's common workspace while the section-2 to display file orfolders in sharable file or folder area in said designated user-group'scommon workspace.

For users belong to same said designated user-group, each user from aweb-browser on any system of said network to login to CCDSVM and getsaid group online meeting web-page as shown in FIG. 6A for user X andFIG. 6B for user Y. Further as described previously each user in saidgroup can instantly post message to said message area of designateduser-group's common workspace, or post one file or folder to thesharable file and folder area in designated user-group's commonworkspace, which associated with said public web page. Also, each userin user-group can instantly perform un-post the previously posted filesor folders task, which results removing the corresponding file or folderentry in file and folder area in designated user-group's commonworkspace by said console support software 6 of the control system 2, orun-post the previously posted messages from common message area ofcommon workspace of said user-group.

Meanwhile as previously described and as shown in FIG. 6E, the publicweb-page can be displayed in the browser 9, which may located on one ormore public display systems or on each public online user's nativesystem, can be dynamically updated and further to be viewed by themassive online public users with the same pace and synchronized withidentical contents as dynamically displaying in said section-2 andsection-3 of said web-page/browser 9 displayed in group online meetingas shown in FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B. Again, said two sections of web-pagedisplay layout is a preferred example and it does not limit thisinvention because with this invention other layout is also possible, forexample, it may be desired to have web-page layout only contains onesection, which is either for messages or file or folder's or for bothmessages or files display depending on the application's need.

As shown in FIG. 8A, FIG. 8B, and FIG. 8C, if people who hadparticipated multiple sessions of group based or non-group basedpeer-to-peer communication and has posted or un-posted many messages,files and file-folders may often do not remember how many materials hasbeen posted for sharing. For example, as shown in FIG. 8A, user X canselect “folder 2” 32, select post on operation menu, and provide target“user Y” to share “folder 2” 32. As show in FIG. 8C, user Y can see“Folder 2” 32 of user X in web-browser of user Y after user X post“Folder 2” 32. If user X select various files or folders for other dozenpeople to post and share, user X will have difficult time to rememberwhat has been shared and who are targeted users. As shown in FIG. 11,the console support software 6 of control system 2 can provide eachuser, user X for example, a central view of a control list of how manymessages, files or file-folders being posted by him or her and to who.As shown in FIG. 11 of personal share management, in view of user X'sweb-browser 9, an entry of posted “Folder 2” 30 is listed at bottom ofsaid control list and it is posted/shared to user Y. Further, saidconsole support software 6 can provide each user selectively un-post thepreviously posted files and folders by clicking on the “delete shared?”of operation menu for corresponding entries in the shared list of centerview web-page and further to generate a un-post operation task. Forexample, user X clicks on “delete share?” to un-post “Folder 2” 32.Thereafter, as described before, said console support software 6 ofcontrol system 2 will execute the un-post task. Further upon refreshingthe targeted user Y's web-page/web-browser, in stead of seeing “Folder2” 32 as shown in FIG. 8C, user Y will see an updated view of said ofweb-page as shown in FIG. 8B, where the “Folder 2” 30 has been removed.The operation menu for “delete share?” depicted here just for exampleand it could be displayed in any other form.

In addition to let original user in a group to control the un-postingfile or folder in group based communication, the console supportsoftware 6 of control system2 may also provide a privileged user toun-post the previously posted files or file folders by other users insaid displayed file and file-folder section of said web-page. To supportthis capability, said console support software 6 will provide anoperation menu to associate with said displayed files and folders insaid display section, further to allow privileged user to performsimilar un-post operation. After receiving the un-post operation, theconsole support software 6 will perform similar said searching forselected file or folder in the group file and folder area 19 of FIG. 4Bof group common workspace of said group, if there is match thecorresponding entry will be deleted. Also, the file and folder sectionof web-page/web-browser can be refreshed accordingly as describedbefore.

The present invention can apply to update web contents for massive webportal in enterprises and personal communication. In one example, theFIGS. 6A and B may represent an internal portal web page, encoded withinformation in common workspace of the group-I, and the FIG. 6E web pagedisplay may represent a external portal of that group. The presentinvention has provided synchronization between these two internal andexternal web pages in real-time.

In one embodiment, a web page screen of a news portal may divided intomulti-sections including sports section, medical section, educationsection, entertainment section, financial section, traveling andvacation section, and technology section etc. without limit. With theCCDSVM, each different section can be assigned to each differentcorresponding group, which is dedicated for updating the news in thesection. For example, 5 sports journalists in a sports group scatteringaround the world can be assigned to update the sports news sectioninstantly at anytime and anyplace, where the sports section is onlyassociated with sports group's common workspace and can be updated andrefreshed independently in the web page via a run-time script. Inanother example, a financial group has 4 journalists being assigned toupdate the financial section of the web page, which is only associatedwith financial group's common workspace, and so forth without limits. Ofcourse, the rest of sections can also be assigned to each dedicatedgroup of journalists.

In another embodiment, a retailer's portal may have multiple sections ofweb page layout for displaying hundreds or even thousands of products,where each section may be dedicated to each type of products. Byassigning each section to a dedicated group of one or more users, thecontents of each section can be much secure and efficiently updatedbecause more users can concurrently working on each section of each webpage for entire web pages of any portal without interrupt each others.

Further, each section can be dedicated to encode and display one type ofresources from each user in corresponding area of group common workspaceor encode and display with mixed type of resources of from multipleareas of a group common workspaces such as mixed with photo-picture andtext messages and others, or mixed with streaming video and textmessages.

Instead of encoding resources of one or more users' private workspacesinto each corresponding section of a web page indirectly via eachcorresponding group's common workspace, in which each user are themembers as described in prior embodiment, each section of a web page canbe encoded directly with resources information in one or more users'private workspaces. To accomplish this, the console support softwaremodules 6 of the control system 2 can keep a mapping list between eachsection and the associated one or more users' private workspaces foreach web page. In addition, the console support software 6 canfacilitate each user an alternative post operation and an alternativeun-post operation to support updating the contents of the assignedsection of a web page. Therefore, instead of facilitating each userposting resources information into the user's group's workspace orwithdrawing resource information from the user's group's workspace, itfacilitating user to tag the resource in his private workspace forposting directly to the assigned section, or to tag the previouslytagged of posted resource for withdrawing. In one embodiment, the taggedinformation can be kept in a list and be store in a dedicated place inthe user's private workspace, or a central controlled file-folder thatconsole support software 6 can easy to pick up. Therefore, duringgenerating the targeted web page, it will encoding each section of webpage according to the mapped information combined with each user'stagged information for updating web contents. Although, this is not asrobust as post and un-post operations, yet it reduced the usage forgroup common workspace.

The management for larger volumes of web contents for a complex webportal will become much efficient because it divides the larger amountof works into one or more small jobs for each corresponding smallsection of each web page of a web portal. Therefore, each section can beparallel updated by one or more users yet the updating is independentand without interfering other sections. Second, it is much secure sinceeach section is restricted to be updated by limited users. Also, withthis invention, the updating does not require any hardcode for eachsection due to the nature of posting and withdrawing technologyintroduced in present invention.

Having briefly described embodiments of the web based networkenvironment in which the present invention operates, FIG. 12 illustratesan example of a computer system 1200, which is an exemplary clientsystem 10, provisioned system 3, control system 2, or console system 1in which the features of the present invention may be implemented.Process of the web based information exchange can be implemented in anyprocessor-based computer system, such as a PC, a workstation, or amainframe computer. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill inthe art that other alternative computer system architectures may also beemployed.

Referring back to FIG. 12, computer system 200 includes a processingunit 201, an interface bus 211, and an input/output (“IO”) unit 220.Processing unit 201 includes a processor 202, a main memory 204, asystem bus 211, a static memory device 206, a bus control unit 205, amass storage memory 207, and a web information exchange module 230. Bus211 is used to transmit information between various components andprocessor 202 for data processing. Processor 202 may be any of a widevariety of general-purpose processors or microprocessors such asPentium™ microprocessor, Motorola™ 68040, or Power PC™ microprocessor.

Main memory 204, which may include multiple levels of cache memories,stores frequently used data and instructions. Main memory 204 may be RAM(random access memory), MRAM (magnetic RAM), or flash memory. Staticmemory 206 may be a ROM (read-only memory), which is coupled to bus 211,for storing static information and/or instructions. Bus control unit 205is coupled to buses 211-212 and controls which component, such as mainmemory 204 or processor 202, can use the bus. Bus control unit 205manages the communications between bus 211 and bus 212. Mass storagememory 207, which may be a magnetic disk, an optical disk, hard diskdrive, floppy disk, CD-ROM, and/or flash memories for storing largeamounts of data. Web based information exchange 230, in one embodiment,is a network control component for facilitating information exchangeover the Web. It should be noted that web based information exchange 230could be software or hardware or a combination of software and hardwarecomponents and modules. In one embodiment, it comprises video and audiorecoding and playback components including digital camera or video oraudio encoding and playing back PCI cards such that the on-the-flyrecoded streaming video on the computer system 200 can be displayed intoeach user's web browser or other viewing mechanism on another remotecomputer system 200 via communication link over various network duringonline information exchanging.

I/O unit 220, in one embodiment, includes a display 221, keyboard 222,cursor control device 223, and communication device 225. Display device221 may be a liquid crystal device, cathode ray tube (“CRT”),touch-screen display, or other suitable display device. Display 221projects or displays images of a graphical planning board. Keyboard 222may be a conventional alphanumeric input device for communicatinginformation between computer system 200 and computer operator(s).Another type of user input device is cursor control device 223, such asa conventional mouse, touch mouse, trackball, or other type of cursorfor communicating information between system 200 and user(s).

Communication device 225 is coupled to bus 211 for accessing informationfrom remote computers or servers, such as server 104 or other computers,through wide-area network 102. Communication device 225 may include amodem or a network interface device, or other similar devices thatfacilitate communication between computer 200 and the network. Computersystem 200 may be coupled to a number of servers via a networkinfrastructure such as the infrastructure illustrated in FIG. 1.

The present invention has been described in considerable details withreference to certain examples. However, other versions and examples arealso possible, therefore, the spirit of this invention shall not belimited to these examples and/or embodiments. Also, the claims of thisinvention will label with numbering and in most cases, the numberingdoes not represent any sequence or order unless specifically describedas the steps of a method.

1. A method of dynamically and parallel updating web contents for webportal comprises the steps of: a) dividing each targeted web page screenlayout of a web portal into one or more sections; b) assigning eachsection of each corresponding targeted web page to a corresponding groupof one or more users for updating; c) facilitating each said user fromown web browser to perform tasks of updating web contents for theassigned section of the targeted web page via posting or withdrawingrequests; d) receiving one or more tasks from each user's web browser,and for each received task to perform the following steps: e)identifying the user who submitted the task and the user's groupmembership, the task's type and the resource for posting or withdrawing;f) deploying a lock protection mechanism to protect resources related tothe task include a user space task list; g) storing the task informationinto a valid entry of the user space task list; h) storing the resourceinformation into the corresponding area of the identified group'sworkspace in response to post request, and deleting the matched resourceinformation from the identified group workspace's corresponding area inresponse to withdrawing request; i) generating a response web pageincluding the resources information in the group's workspaces back tothe user's web browser; and j) cleaning up the corresponding taskinformation in said entry of the user space task list in response tocompletion of the task; and k) generating the corresponding targeted webpage with each section encoded with the status of the resourceinformation being posted or withdrew in the workspace of eachcorresponding group in response to each requests of accessing thetargeted web page from one or more online web browsers.